God Is The Bigger Elvis

Dolores Hart, what a gal. I recently watched a documentary about her that blew my mind. It's called God Is The Bigger Elvis.
She was a hot prospect and rising star in Hollywood in the late fifties and early sixties. Between 1957 and 1963 she starred in ten films opposite leading men like Elvis Presley, Anthony Quinn, Montgomery Clift, George Hamilton, and Robert Wagner. She's kicking ass in Hollywood and poised to be set for life financially and what does she do? She walks away from it all and joins the benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut. She became a nun and is still there today. In fact now she is top dog, Prioress of the Monastery.
From leading lady in Tinseltown to leading lady in Jesustown. Fascinating.
What inspires someone to make such a drastic decision? This is what blows my mind. And obviously it was the right decision because she stuck with it.
Part of what makes her decision so drastic is that she had it all. She had what any of us would kill to have. If I moved into a one room cold water flat with no heat, one wooden table and one unforgiving chair, a mattress on the floor, stopped bathing and started writing poetry, everybody would say "I'm not surprised. He hated his life anyway." If any of us made a huge life change people would say "Good for you, you are trying to make your life more your own."
Did she hate her life? Or did she discover a life that made more sense? I don't know. I am not equipped to understand it. I have trouble picking out just the right pair of socks every morning.
Whenever I hear about someone with that level of commitment it makes me think they have the inside scoop. That they know something that I don't know. That they have figured out something about life that the rest of us schmucks are missing.
I am not saying we should all suddenly get religious. What I am saying is that I am willing to bet that most of us would love to make a huge change in our lives. I mean really shake things up and go in a different direction. Completely new career, move from the east coast to the west coast or from the the U.S.of A. to Italy. Throw out all your clothes and buy a new wardrobe that expresses your nature honestly and blows the minds of family and friends. Speak differently, tougher, meeker, more intelligently, more vulgarly. Gain weight, lose weight, dive into a new sport, commit yourself to something fanatically that you have always wanted to do.
But we don't do it. It's amazing how complacent we are. How many conversations do you have with people who complain about their lives and go on to say "I wish.................". Be honest. It happens all the time every day.
It happens in our minds constantly, and that might be the most honest and most difficult conversation of all.
Mother Dolores is a pretty cool cat. When asked why she walked away from Hollywood she answered "I never considered my decision as walking away from Hollywood. I felt it was walking into something more significant and by that, I took Hollywood with me. I really loved my work and the people I worked with."
I love the fact that she doesn't condemn Hollywood. She accepts it as a positive part of her life. In fact she is still a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
She was engaged to Don Robinson when she decided to enter the Abbey. She broke off the engagement and did her thing. Robinson never married and visits her every year at Christmas and Easter. The documentary shows one of his visits. When he leaves he is tearful and Mother Dolores is tearful. A very human side of the story.
There are a lot of amazing people in this world amidst the pettiness, viciousness, hopelessness and disappointment of life.
How the hell do they do it?